Anderson will star as Media, the mouthpiece for the New Gods, who serves as their spokesperson by taking shape as various iconic celebrities. She’s manipulative, savvy, and draws power from the attention people give to various forms of new media. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.
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Hot off The X-Files revival, Gillian Anderson has booked her TV follow-up role. With her recent role on Hannibal, the less impressive (but very buzzed nonetheless) return of The X-Files, and another season of The Fall very much on the horizon (airing “later in 2016”) – not to mention her starring role in the Young Vic’s A Streetcar Named Desire – that’d be plenty to substantiate the claim of “being on a roll”. During their trip across the US, Shadow meets Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber) and finds out there’s a war starting between the country’s traditional mythological gods and new gods reflecting society’s love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. A year ago she followed up Hannibal’s final run with a return to The X-Files, and also starred in the Netflix series The Fall, along with a small role in Lifetime’s excellent War & Peace miniseries. Also appearing are Cloris Leachman (Malcom in The Middle, Raising Hope), Peter Stormare (Fargo, Prison Break), Chris Obi (Snow White and the Huntsman, The Counselor), and Mousa Kraish (Superbad, Fast & Furious).
Shooting on American Gods is now underway in Toronto, Canada and will continue in additional locations across America. David Slade is directing the pilot and additional episodes.
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Bryan Fuller (who is also the creator of the TV series Hannibal) with be co-showrunning this series with Michael Green (known for the Green Lantern movie released in 2011).
